‘Chicken Run’ Is Getting a Sequel at Aardman

The highest-grossing stop-motion animated movie of all time is Chicken Run, the 2000 film from Aardman Animation, the geniuses who also made the Wallace and Gromit films and Shaun the Sheep. It’s also, somewhat surprisingly, the only stop-motion animated movie that’s ever grossed more than $100 million in U.S. theaters. (Its domestic total was $106.8 million back in 2000, along with another $118 million overseas.) In light of that fact it’s surprising that it’s taken almost 20 years to get today’s news: That a sequel is now in development.

The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Aardman is working on the sequel, along with the original studios who helped them produce it, StudioCanal and Pathe. As for its creators:

Sam Fell, who earned Oscar and BAFTA nominations for 2012's ParaNorman and also helmed Aardman's Flushed Away in 2006, is attached to direct, with Paul Kewley (Shaun the Sheep Movie) producing. Original writers Karey Kirkpatrick (Over the Hedge, Smurfs 2, The Spiderwick Chronicles) and John O'Farrell have been reunited to pen the screenplay. Aardman's co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton are executive producing.

Sam Fell’s involvement is exciting news; ParaNorman is one of my very favorite stop-motion films so his collaborating again with Aardman on any project is a very exciting development.

No word yet on whether the original voice cast (including Mel Gibson) will return, but THR speculates that the film could go into production at Aardman’s studio after they finish work on Shaun the Sheep Movie Farmageddon. I think we can all agree that is easily the greatest title for a movie in world history.